The district is inhabited by various groups of mammals. Primates are represented by rhesus macaque or bandar and the langur. The tiger and leopard, once aboundant in the district are no more seen here. The carnivorous animals found in the district are the jungle cat, the small Indian civet, jackal and the Indian fox.

The insectivorous like the grey musk-shrew or chuchunder, common yellow bat and the Tichelli’s bat are usually seen.

The five stripped palm squirrel or gilheri, the Indian porcupine or sahi, the Indian gerbile, the common house rat and mouse are common rodents found.

The Indian hare belonging to the order lagomorpha is also found in the bushes.

Chinkara is seen in the district specially in Bawal tahsil and Nimbi Duloth and Nangal Mala forests in Mahendragarh tahsil. Black buck though in limited number is found near Rewari and Sureti, Dalanwas and Mahendragarh in Mahendragarh tahsil. The blue bull or Nilgai is common all over the district; though it damages the crops yet villagers protect the animal due to religious sentiments.

The species facing extinction in the district are chinkara, black buck, blue bull, stripped hyaena and bheriya.

Birds

Game birds – A large number of game birds are found in the district, some are residential while others are winter visitors. Various types of ducks such as spotbill duck, cotton teal, comb duck, large whistling teal, tree duck and dabchick are found throughout the district at suitable habitats. Ducks and geese such as eastern grey-lag goose, barheaded goose, brahminy duck, common shelduck, pintail, common teall, mallard, gadwali, wigeon, blue winged teal, shoveller, common pochard, ferrugious ducks and tufted duck visit the district during winter.

Other game birds like black partridges (the state bird) and grey partridges and quails are common. Grey quail is a winter visitor while black-breasted or rain quail, jungle bush quail, whistler or rock bush quail are resident species. Western turtle dove, Indian spotted dove, Senegal dove and Indian emerald dove are generally found in all cultivated fields.

Sandgrouses, namely, the Indian sandgrouse and blackbellied are resident birds while large pintail sandgrouse and spotted sandgrouse visit the district in winter. Their flocks, large and small, regularly visit favourable waterholes.

The district is also inhabited by large number of other birds which add beauty to the wildlife. Birds like large cormorant, little cormorant, darter or snake bird, eastern grey heron and paddy bird are found on the ponds and lakes of the district throughout the year. Other birds like eastern large egrets, median egret, little egret and little bittern affect inland water marshes, jheels, etc. Cattle egret can be seen moving alongwith grazing cattle.

Among cranes, eastern common crane and Demoiselle crane are found near stream beds and fields of winter crops. Indian sarus crane is a resident bird and breeds during rains.

A good number of painted stork, open bill stork, whitenecked stork, blacknecked stork, white ibis, Indian blackibis are found near the streams, jheels, marshes, inundated lands and cultivated fields. It is common during rains.

During winter eastern Baillon’s crake and spotted crake can be seen on the edges of ponds and lakes feeding on aquatic plants. Indian blue-breasted banded rail, slatylegged banded crake, northern ruddy crake, whitebreasted waterhen, watercock, Indian moorhen, Indian purple moorhen are resident birds and can be seen on ponds, inundated paddy fields, etc. Coot, is a resident as well as winter visitor and affects jheels and tanks.

Different types of waders are also found. Waders like dusky redshank, eastern redshank, marsh sandpiper, green shank, green sandpiper, wood or spotted sandpiper, common sandpiper, pintail snipe, fantail snipe and temminck’s stint visit suitable marshy areas and the edges of ponds during winter. Pheasant tailed jacana, painted snipe and Indian blackwinged stilt are resident birds and affects jheels, marshes, tanks and ponds. Indian river tern and blackbellied tern are found in the stream beds throughout the year. Indina whistered tern is a winter visitor.

Among the kingfishers, the most common are the Indian pied kingfisher, Indian small blue kingfisher and whitebreassted kingfisher. These birds can be seen hurling themselves into water to catch fish. These are residential birds.

The common peafowl, the national bird, is quite common and is seen in orchards, fields and gardens.

The other common birds are large Indian parakeet, rose-ringed parakeet, Indian house crow, Indian house sparrow, blue-checked bee-eater, goldenbacked woodpecker, blue jay, coppersmith, Indian golden oriole, pied crested cuckoo, koel, common crow pheasant, redvented bulbul, white-eared bulbul, verditer flycatcher, Indian magpie robin, Indian purple sunbird, red munia, Indian spotted munia and crested bunting. Besides, such attractive birds as hoopoe and Indian white-eye are also seen in and around villages.

Birds of Economic Importance – Scavengers like pariah kite, brahminy kite, whitebacked vulture, tawny eagle, white-eyed buzzard eagle and Indian jungle crow keep the district cleared of dead animals by feeding on them. The Indian scavenger vulture, besides feeding on dead animals, consumes a large quantity of human excreta. Predators like blackwinged kite, Indian shikara, lagger falcon and kestrel are residential birds of the district. Other birds like pale harrier, marsh harrier, eastern steppe eagle visit the district in winter. These along with spotted owlet and eagle owl keep a check on the population of rodent pests and various insect pests by consuming them.

Majority of the birds feed on insects and caterpillars injurious to agriculture. Swifts such as Indian house swift, Indian palm swift and swallows like western swallow and Indian wiretailed swallow consume insects as their staple diet. Shrikes or butcher birds as they are popularly known, feed upon a considerable quantity of insects. Other insect eating birds are king crow, Brahminy myna, Indian pied myna, Indian myna, bank myna, babblers, warblers and flycatchers. Larks and wagtails feed on a considerable amount of worms in addition to insects. Rosy paster and common starling both winter visitors may specially be mentioned for their role in destroying numberous insects including locusts on a large scale and thus help in saving crops to some extent.

Reptiles

Snakes – The common poisonous snakes are krait, cobra, Russel’s viper and phoorsa. The non-poisonous snakes are blind snake, Indian python, John’s sand boa, wolf snake and rat snake.

Lizards – All the lizards found in the district are non-poisonous. The common lizard can be seen in the houses. Kirla or girgit is found in the lawns and hedges and attact the attention by changing its colours. Sanda is found in sandy areas. Besides, a few other types of lizards are found in bushes and areas of thick vegetation.

Tortoise – Two species of tortoise are found in the district.

Frogs – The frogs commonly found, during the rains and in the ponds are Indian bull frog, Indian cricket frog, Indian burrowing frog and common toad.

Fish

The streams and ponds abound in many species of fish. These are parri, katla, mrigal, bata, kalabans, rohu, puthia or kudali, or pitula, magur, singhara, ghally, mallee, dolla and curd.